


baby it's cold outside

by Baconfat



Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: Hypothermia, M/M, Sharing Body Heat, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-30
Updated: 2016-01-30
Packaged: 2018-05-17 05:43:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5856376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baconfat/pseuds/Baconfat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seifer and Zell get caught in the cold. Arguing is a good way to stay warm, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	baby it's cold outside

The storm was coming on worse, now, snow and sleet slanting right in Seifer's face while his chocobo fought the wind, knee-deep in the blowing snow. He held a gloved hand up to his eyes, trying to squint through the white, trying not to lose the smugglers -- but they were getting further and further ahead, harder and harder to spot. _Dammit._ "Hurry up, Chicken-wuss, we're gonna lose them!"

The wind was picking up, too, and Seifer strained to hear whatever stupid comeback Zell was gonna throw at him, but there was nothing.

He stopped, finally, his chocobo trembling underneath him, snow piling up on her feathers. Seifer turned in the saddle, brushing small piles of it off his coat. He turned back to Zell, ready to yell again --

\-- but Zell was gone. 

The wind roared again, sending a sudden chill down Seifer's spine. Dincht's chocobo was there, picking itself up but where -- the hell could he've -- and Zell finally popped his head up out of the snow, half-covered in white. "H-hold up," he shouted, spitting snow.

Seifer rolled his eyes and brought his bird around, heading back. "You hear me, Dincht? I said hurry up! We lose 'em now, we'll never --"

"It's not my fault!" Zell yelled, digging himself out of the snow and stomping back to his chocobo. It flapped its wings a little, trembling. "My chocobo tripped 'n threw me off!"

Seifer snorted, bringing his bird over. "You mean you fell."

"I didn't!" Zell said. He had his hands on his chocobo's flanks. "Something's wrong, man, I don't think she can take this c-cold." As he said it, another sharp gust of wind whipped past them, setting Seifer's coat flapping. The chocobos squawked softly. 

"We need to keep moving," Seifer said, turning back to try and spot the smugglers.

There wasn't a trace of them. Nothing but white in every direction. Even their tracks were gone, buried somewhere under the shifting snowdrifts. Shit. "God damn it, Dincht, we lost them. How many times did I tell you not to fall off your damn bird?"

Zell glared at him, and Seifer noticed now that _he_ was trembling, too, maybe worse than his chocobo was. "Sh-shut up, Seifer," he rattled out. "We gotta head back. F-find shelter."

Seifer grit his teeth, look again at where he'd last seen the smugglers. _Damn_ it. "Fine," he snapped. "Let's head back."

\----

Night was falling before they finally found shelter -- nothing but a crack in the side of the cliffs, and a cave barely bigger than a closet, but at least it was out of the wind. 

" _Fuck_ , it's cold," Seifer said while they stumbled inside. Half-expected Zell to argue with _that_ , even, but he didn't. Just staggered over to the spot furthest from the opening and tucked himself into a trembling ball, his back to the wall and his knees at his chest. "The hell were you thinking, wearing shorts?"

Zell hardly glanced at him. "Th-thought we were just g-going to the village and back."

"Moron," Seifer said.

Zell didn't answer, just sat there shivering. Shit, Seifer thought, and finally sat next to him, shoulders touching. _Fuck_ it was cold.

"We maybe shoulda ch-checked the weather before chasing after those guys," Zell managed. And maybe he shifted closer, or maybe it just seemed that way 'cause of the trembling. 

"What, we were just supposed to let them go?"

Zell shivered, didn't answer. "Y-you think the chocobos are okay?"

The hell did he care? "They're fine." And when Zell didn't say anything, "Trabia-bred. We were just slowing them down."

He just wouldn't stop _shivering_. "C-cold," Zell said.

Dammit. Seifer pulled his coat off, shook some of the ice and snow off of it, then tucked it around them, refusing to look at Dincht while he did it. When he _did_ look, he tried not to notice the blue in his lips. Dark circles under his eyes and goosebumps on his neck. "Moron," Seifer said again.

"Sh-shut up," Zell rattled out, and Seifer imagined making it back to Garden, telling them that they lost the stones, and the smugglers, and oh yeah, Dincht wouldn't be coming back because he _froze_ to death in a goddamn cave. Wearing _shorts_. 

"Y-you even know where we are?" Zell asked.

"Of course I do," Seifer lied. "What, you don't?"

Zell didn't answer.

"You're lucky I'm here," Seifer pointed out, "or you'd be buried somewhere in the snow right about now."

"I w-wouldn't even be out here if it weren't for you," Zell countered.

Seifer snorted. "Right, you woulda just gone back to Garden and said, 'oh, sorry, some jackasses stole the stones as soon as we left the village, and I was too much of a Chicken-wuss to go after them.'"

"I'm n-not. A ch-chicken!" Zell chattered, and actually tried to take a swing at him without taking his arms out from under the coat.

Seifer smirked. "What was that, Chicken? I couldn't understand you with all the stuttering. I thought you got over that." 

Zell elbowed him -- hard. It was like being stabbed in the ribs with an icicle. "B-bastard." That done, though, he shifted closer and didn't say anything else.

Seifer wasn't sure how long they sat there, listening to the wind shrieking outside. Eventually he started shivering, too, and when he glanced over to complain about it, Dincht looked like he was nodding off. "Hey. _Hey!_ " Seifer elbowed him -- hard -- and Dincht jerked up, looking around like he didn't know where he was. "No sleeping on the job."

Zell nodded, blinked, nodded again -- the idiot was starting to drop off. " _Hey._ I'm not kidding, Dincht." But he was barely listening, his eyes glassy and half-closed. Seifer grabbed his chin. "Hey. Look at me."

Dincht turned cranky. "I'm tired, man."

"No, you're not, you're hypothermic, you idiot. _Look at me!_ "

Zell blinked a bit at that. Good. "What?"

"Don't fall asleep," Seifer warned him. "You get hypothermia, you fall asleep, you don't wake up." Everyone at Garden would probably think Seifer'd killed him. Not that anybody could blame him.

Zell seemed to take a minute to absorb that, then scowled. "I know that, I'm not stupid. I took the same survival training you did."

"Did you miss the part where they said don't wear shorts in Trabia in the middle of goddamn winter?"

"Hey, it's _warm_ in Shumi Village, okay? I know, 'cause I've been there before. I got to see the Elder's _hands!_ You never got to do that."

Seifer frowned. Either he was delirious, or he was just... Zell. "Whatever." ("Ha!" Zell replied.) "You got anything we can burn?"

Zell blinked, looked around the empty cave. "Your coa--"

" _No._ "

"D-dude, we're gonna, like, freeze to death."

"Yeah, and my coat's the only piece of clothing we have that's not soaked through."

Zell shivered, looking miserable. "Even my socks are wet."

"Shoulda worn boots," Seifer pointed out, generously not calling him a moron. Zell elbowed him again, but didn't say anything.

Right. No tent, no fire, no dry clothes. Nothing to do but try to stay warm and hope the storm ended soon. What the hell was it they said in survival training about hypothermia? Something about conserving body heat. Skin to skin contact.

Oh, hell no.

"S-Seifer," Zell said next to him. Slurring a little. Shit. "I just wanna sleep for a bit."

_Damn_ it. Seifer got up abruptly, tearing the trench coat off of him. Zell yelped, grabbing at it. "Get up," Seifer ordered.

"The hell?"

Seifer brought his fists up, rolling his neck. "Get up and fight me."

Zell grinned and got to his feet. "You s-sure about this, man? We're a long way from the Infirmary."

Seifer snorted. "You scared?"

Zell bounced on his feet a bit. "Wouldn't want you to get hurt."

"You wish," Seifer said, and just barely jumped back in time to avoid getting sucker-punched. They fell into an easy rhythm of blocks and punches, Seifer goading Zell on the whole time, doing more blocking than punching. It wasn't like he couldn't keep up. He was just busy pissing the Chicken-wuss off -- and obviously not doing a great job of it, 'cause Zell was grinning like an idiot, forcing him back a step in the tiny space they had.

Seifer'd just brought up that time Dincht crashed his T-board into the girls' restroom when Zell swept his feet out of from under him. He hit the ground hard, the back of his head slamming against the rock.

And Zell was on top of him, grinning. "Hah! Who's laughin' _now?_ " Well, at least he didn't look half-frozen anymore.

Seifer rolled his eyes. "Get off."

"Tch! No way! You gave me like three weeks' detention after that! _And_ you confiscated my board! I'd custom-rigged that thing, man!"

Should've let him freeze to death. "Well, maybe you sh-shouldn't have been riding it in the halls." 

Zell frowned at him. "You're shivering."

Seifer moved to shove him off -- and Zell grabbed his arm. "Whoa, you're --" He put a warm hand on Seifer's forehead, "You're _freezing!_ "

"I'm fine. Just give me my c-coat," Seifer said. Dammit.

"Right," Zell nodded, reaching for where Seifer'd left it on the ground. "Wait," he said. "They talked about this in survival training, remember? They said -- yeah, they said you have to take off any wet clothes and share body heat." He looked down at Seifer, and as usual, it took a minute for his brain to catch up with his mouth. When it finally did, his eyes went wide. "Uh."

"I'd rather d-die," Seifer ground out.

Zell hesitated for a long, long minute, then shook his head. "Don't be stupid," he said, his voice a little shaky, and started _pulling_ at Seifer's _shirt_. "It could be hours before the storm's --"

Seifer grabbed one of his wrists. "We are _not_ doing this."

Zell stared at him. "The hell? You got a death wish or somethin'?"

"What part of 'I'd rather die' did you not understand?"

Zell rolled his eyes and stood up. "Well, too bad," he said, pulling his jacket off, "'cause _I'm_ not gonna freeze to death in some stupid cave." 

Seifer sat on the ground, shivering, while Zell pulled his shirt off and let it drop. Watched him turn away a little, undo his belt. Pull his shorts off and step out of them. 

Now they were _both_ shivering.

"F-Friggin' _freezing_ ," Zell muttered, bending to pick up Seifer's coat. 

He looked at Seifer. Seifer glared back at him.

"Suit yourself, man," Zell said, and climbed on top of him, yanking Seifer's vest off before he could even -- 

Hands. Dincht's _hands_ were on Seifer's _belt_. Seifer grabbed his wrists. Hard. "What the hell do you think you're d-doing?"

"Tryin' to save you from freezing to death! What does it look like?"

Seifer didn't answer that, did _not_ say, or think, or -- "Get off me."

"This isn't a joke, Seifer! We've already been out in the cold for hours, and you look like you're gonna _die_. I'm tryin' to _help_."

Seifer took a deep breath. In, and out. _Damn_ it. He let go. "Just let me --"

"Your hands are shaking like crazy," Zell said, already undoing Seifer's pants, pulling them down but not off, leaving them in a tangle around his boots.

Then he flopped down on top of Seifer, pulling the coat around them. 

Seifer stared hard at the ceiling, almost warm everywhere Zell's skin was against his. Goddamn freezing everywhere else. He couldn't decide which was worse. "You ever tell anyone about this and I swear I will break your goddamn neck," Seifer growled, realizing as he said it that he was pretty much saying it _into_ Zell's neck, seeing the fine hairs there move with his breath. 

Zell shivered, and it was all Seifer could do not to shove him off, start a fight, make him bleed, make him -- 

\-- f-fuck.

Seifer closed his eyes, and thought about ice and snow, and how goddamn cold he was.

They lay like that for a long time, tense and quiet, listening to the wind outside and feeling each other breathe.


End file.
